Hey friends, I'm a newbie on here, been checkin out this forum pretty religiously over last couple days, some awesome info. Anyways, after finding a HD cam on amazon.co.uk other day called "Speed HD-8Z 1080P" I needed to get some info on it.

Turns out it is basically the DXG-596V, but with just a different badge. It finally arrived this morning, and I am indeed very impressed with it overall. But I have some questions, which I'm hoping one of you guys might be able to answer for me.

1.) Does the higher class SDHC improve overall bit rates? - Annoyingly the one that came provided with camera, was an 8GB, but only class 4. So I ordered the following today - SanDisk SDHC 8GB Video HD Ultra Class 6, hoping that it will not only be quicker, but also improve data rates/picture quality.

2.) Does anyone use Sony Vegas 7 as their editing program? I happened to preview a small clip in it earlier today at 1080P, but it only read it as 1080i (1440, not 1920) Is there a way of importing the clips at full 1080P to edit, without also losing quality/recompressing?

3.) Having trouble with the firmware update, it's just not letting me drop the BIN file into memory card folder. Maybe I'm doin somethin stupid, it just says that memory card is protected, when it's unlocked. Ive read on here that some others have suffered same problems.

4.) Does the firmware update, eliminate audio problem or is that forever going to be an issue? Noisy zoom I'm finding. But to be fair, I hae a number of MD recorders, that I plan to use with my mics from now on with every vid project, so if it cant be fixed, it's not the end, as long as I can use it as guide track for seperatly recorded (and hopefully superior!) audio recordings.

Apart from the above issues, it's a bloody great camera for the price, and Im already finding that it has the potential to give out a truly awesome HD picture in the right lighting conditions. Kudos to all who have put up their HD tests/vids on vimeo HD, they look killer!

Just noticed this turned into a short book, so I will leave it there for now, if anyone can offer any help/advice with above, id be very grateful. ROCK ON!

1.) Does the higher class SDHC improve overall bit rates? - Annoyingly the one that came provided with camera, was an 8GB, but only class 4. So I ordered the following today - SanDisk SDHC 8GB Video HD Ultra Class 6, hoping that it will not only be quicker, but also improve data rates/picture quality.

You are wasting your money on a Class 6. Class 4 is already way faster than the DXG needs. The camera's maximum rate is 10Mb/s which is well within even a cheap standard 10x SD memory card. Class 4 is 4MB/s which is 32Mb/s and a Class 6 is 6MB/s which 48Mb/s which as you can see is overkill.

Now of course, where they may help is in the card reader, but even then I wouldn't pay a premium for a class 6 myself.

You will notice in the manuals of all hybrids and the Sanyo Xacti line for instance they just say 'SD or SDHC' and never a speed. Remember also that memory card speeds are usually quoted in MB/s whereas cameras are quoted in Mb/s.

Hey friends, I'm a newbie on here, been checkin out this forum pretty religiously over last couple days, some awesome info. Anyways, after finding a HD cam on amazon.co.uk other day called "Speed HD-8Z 1080P" I needed to get some info on it.

Turns out it is basically the DXG-596V, but with just a different badge. It finally arrived this morning, and I am indeed very impressed with it overall. But I have some questions, which I'm hoping one of you guys might be able to answer for me.

1.) Does the higher class SDHC improve overall bit rates? - Annoyingly the one that came provided with camera, was an 8GB, but only class 4. So I ordered the following today - SanDisk SDHC 8GB Video HD Ultra Class 6, hoping that it will not only be quicker, but also improve data rates/picture quality.

2.) Does anyone use Sony Vegas 7 as their editing program? I happened to preview a small clip in it earlier today at 1080P, but it only read it as 1080i (1440, not 1920) Is there a way of importing the clips at full 1080P to edit, without also losing quality/recompressing?

3.) Having trouble with the firmware update, it's just not letting me drop the BIN file into memory card folder. Maybe I'm doin somethin stupid, it just says that memory card is protected, when it's unlocked. Ive read on here that some others have suffered same problems.

4.) Does the firmware update, eliminate audio problem or is that forever going to be an issue? Noisy zoom I'm finding. But to be fair, I hae a number of MD recorders, that I plan to use with my mics from now on with every vid project, so if it cant be fixed, it's not the end, as long as I can use it as guide track for seperatly recorded (and hopefully superior!) audio recordings.

Apart from the above issues, it's a bloody great camera for the price, and Im already finding that it has the potential to give out a truly awesome HD picture in the right lighting conditions. Kudos to all who have put up their HD tests/vids on vimeo HD, they look killer!

Just noticed this turned into a short book, so I will leave it there for now, if anyone can offer any help/advice with above, id be very grateful. ROCK ON!

Dan.

1. Higher class Memory Cards do not improve anything on this camera. But be warned that it IS sensitive to different brands of memory cards. I had a PNY brand class 4 card and it caused audio problems (like a static choo choo train sound). I then got a SanDisk Ultra II class 2 card (8GB) which worked perfectly with no audio issues.
Do not waste your money on a faster card. My class 2 card records at 1080P great.

2. I just started working with Sony Vegas 8 (Not 7). You might want to upgrade to Sony Vegas 8. I heard there is alot of improvements as far as importing and editing HD material. I am now trying Magix Movie Pro 14 Plus by recommendation on this site for this camera which seems to work better than Sony Vegas 8.

3. You need to format the card (FAT32) and place the file on the ROOT of card. There can be nothing else on the card before using it to flash firmware.

4. The firmware update elimanates the MUTING of the audio when using the Zoom. The side effect of this is that now when you ZOOM you can hear the zoom in the recording in quiet environments. I personally perfer the new firmware over the old one still.

Cheers for the replies RgvCam andDaveDude! I already went and ordered that class 6 card, but I'll see if itwilleliminate the little niggles with this cam. DaveDude, Magix movie edit is an awesome bit of software, Ive been using Movie edit 10+ for last few years, along with Vegas 7. And like yourself, have just recently started using Movie edit 14+.I think Im not going to be able to update firmware with thecard Ive got rightnow, asmy computer just wont format it through the camera USB. Ill have to buy a card reader maybe. Not to worry though. Thanks for the help again guys.